Sermons - Written

DATE

CHURCH

SUBJECT

PREACHER

BIBLE REF.

31.05.09

St Mary's Church

Work of the Holy Spirit:
Many Christians feel the Holy Spirit is rather mysterious – they can
understand the concept of God the Father, and of God the Son as their
Saviour. We can also understand how that relates to our own
lives...

Patricia Higton

01.03.09

All Saints Church

Temptation to Doubt:
You may have heard many a sermon preached in Lent about the importance
of overcoming temptation. Various temptations will have been
mentioned – lust, greed, anger, hatred, envy, pride, etc. But in the
reading from Genesis we heard of the very first temptation ever to the
first human beings: the temptation to doubt God.
That temptation, which can be mild or agonising and takes many
different forms, has afflicted humanity ever since. Temptation is not
sin – only if we give in to it. But we can take comfort from the
fact that this particular temptation comes to most people at one time
or another and even afflicted Jesus.

Patricia Higton

Luke 4:1-13

18.01.09

All Saints Church

Christian Unity:
This is where unity begins – with us here and each congregation
throughout the world which gathers to worship Jesus. When new
people come to All Saints most comment what a happy family atmosphere
there is. But how we need to guard that and not allow in divisive
attitudes.

Patricia
Higton

John 17:1-11
Isaiah 62:1-7

27.12.08

All Saints Church

The Generosity of God:
The Christmas card version of Christmas is somewhat misleading.
It is virtually certain that the birth of Jesus didn’t take place on
December 25th. In Israel, flocks were kept outside from April to
November, (although occasionally during the winter in suitable
locations). Moreover the Romans wouldn’t have held a census in bad
weather which could include snow, when some roads were impassable.

Tony Higton

Luke 2:8-20

12.12.08

All Saints Church

Jesus the Only Way:
I never cease to marvel at how favoured Mary was. She was a young,
unknown peasant girl living in a small village in remote corner of the
Roman Empire. Yet, to use a Greek theological term, she was theotokos –
the God bearer. I wonder how much she took in of what the angel
said to her. The angel referred to:

Tony Higton

Luke 1:26-38

09.11.08

All Saints Church

Facing Death:
“We grieve; for Christians death is sleep. For Christians grief is not
hopeless, for Christians hope is certain.

Tony Higton

1 Thess. 4:13-18

02.11.08

All Saints Church

Living by Faith:
The popular British definition of a “Christian” is “a good
person.” Obviously, Christians are called to be good people. But
what is often forgotten is the statement of the writer of the Epistle
to the Hebrews: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”
(Hebrews 11:6).

Tony Higton

Luke 9:18-27

25.10.08

All Saints Church

The Right Mind-Set:
“Two men looked through prison bars. One saw mud, the other saw
stars.” It all depends how you look at things. This is an
important lesson for the Christian life. We can either have our minds
set on earthly things or on heavenly things.

Tony Higton

Phil. 3:17-21

11.10.08

All Saints Church

Thus Spoke Zarathustra:
Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, was the son of a Lutheran
Pastor. He gave up studying theology because he lost his faith
and became very anti-Christian. He is famous for the statement: “God is
dead.” He wrote book Thus Spoke Zarathustra which Richard Strauss set to music. It was used as the theme for Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001, A Space Odyssey.

Tony Higton

Phil.4:1-9

28.09.08

All Saints Church

Following Christ:
Are you a follower of Christ? Many of us would want to answer:
“Yes!” But are we? It may be true that we believe and trust
in him. It may be true that we are enormously grateful for his
sacrificial love for us. But do we really follow him?

Tony Higton

Phil. 2:1-13

24.08.08

All Saints Church

Living for God:
You will stand before God alone one day, to give account of your
life. What will have been the dominant motive of your way of life
- pleasing yourself, pleasing others or pleasing God? Paul
challenges us to live a life which pleases God and benefits other
people. Firstly, he urges us

Tony Higton

Romans 2:1-8

17.08.08

All Saints Church

What is the Purpose of the Law?:
When we lived in Jerusalem it was clear that Jewish people thought that
we Christians didn’t think the Torah (the Law) was
important. They thought we simply thought it was important
to believe, but keeping the Law of the Hebrew Scriptures was
unimportant.

Tony Higton

Luke 10:23-41
Galatians 3:16-29

10.08.08

All Saints Church

Walking on Water:
There are some Christians who seem to think Christianity is meant to be
an insurance policy against all difficulty and suffering. They
dogmatically believe every sick person should be healed and that God
wants Christians to be affluent. They think that life should be one
uninterrupted string of miracles.

Tony Higton

Matt. 14:22-33

03.08.08

All Saints Church

The Feeding of the 10,000:
Yes it probably was about 10,000! The 5000 didn’t include women and
children.I worked out that dividing loaves between all that crowd would
have provided each person with the equivalent of about one hundredth of
a modern slice of bread. Yet they were all satisfied and 12 baskets
full of scraps were gathered up. To me this brings home the
amazing nature of this miracle.

Tony Higton

Matt.14:13-21

27.07.08

All Saints' Church

You're Never Alone:
Do you remember that 1960s TV advert depicting a dark, wet, deserted
London street scene in which a rain coated character, lit a cigarette
and puffed reflectively. Then a voice-over declared "You're never alone
with a Strand".

Rev. Tony Higton

Romans 8:26:39

20.07.08

All Saints' Church

Who is a Child of God?:
“We’re all children of God” is one of those glib statements you hear
from time to time. It gives the false impression that we are all safe
and sound in God’s family for time and eternity. The New Testament,
however, teaches that we have to opt into God’s family.

Rev. Tony Higton

Romans 8:12-25

13.07.08

All Saints' Church

Responding to God's Word:
Jesus speaks about this in his Parable of the Sower. The “seed” is the
“message about the kingdom [of God]” (verse 19), i.e. the message about
the rule of God in our lives. The “soil” is our heart attitude
towards that message.

Rev. Tony Higton

Matt.13:1-9, 18-23

29.06.08

All Saints' Church

Onward Christian Soldiers:
Now I am passionate about peace and reconciliation, especially in the
Holy Land where we used to live and minister. I abominate the
violence in the history of Christianity. But I shall sing the
traditional militant version with enthusiasm!

Rev. Tony Higton

Acts 12:1-18

22.06.08

All Saints' Church

Coping with Financial Worries:
What would you think of me if I visited a wife who had just been left
by her husband for another woman or parents who had just lost a baby or
a man who has been told he has terminal cancer and I said: “I know how
you feel”? You’d have me sacked for profound insensitivity and
clear incompetence!

Rev. Tony Higton

Matt.6:25-33

01.06.08

All Saints' Church

If We Love God We Will Obey Him:
I always remember an experience I had as a boy on holiday in
Mablethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast in the 1950s. At the far
North end of the beach there was an RAF bombing range, littered with
debris from shells and bombs.

Rev. Tony Higton

Matt. 7:21-29

25.05.08

All Saints Church

Justice and Beyond Justice:
Sex is an important subject because it deeply affects the lives of
individuals and families, and therefore society. I myself for 14 years
campaigned on various subjects including sexuality (but I am not a
single issue person). But sadly the church does sometimes seem to have
a fixation on sexuality, particularly homosexuality.

Tony Higton

Lev. 19: 1-2
Matt 5: 38-60

18.05.08

All Saints Church

Trinity Sunday: The Mystery of God:
Trinity Sunday speaks of the complexity and mystery of God. Have a
quick read through the following ancient attempt to define the Trinity.

The "I Am" Sayings:
Quite frequently these days we need to produce documentation to prove
we are who we say we are – the other day I wanted to open a savings
account and had to show my passport and a notice of tax coding.

Patricia Higton

John 14:1-14

20.04.08

All Saints' Church

What is Christianity?
Christianity is not primarily church buildings, hymnbooks, prayer
books, communion tables, candles and the like. Christianity is Christ.
When Thomas asked Jesus the way to heaven, Jesus replied that he is the
way.

Rev. Tony Higton

John 14:1-14

13.04.08

All Saints' Church

What is Church For?
What’s the purpose of the church? What’s it all about? Is it just
for people who have nothing better to do on a Sunday morning? Is it
just a cosy religious club? Is it a gathering of those who like singing
hymns?

Rev. Tony Higton

Acts 2: 42-47

30.03.08

All Saints' Church

Christ Our Hope:
The word “hopeless” is one of the most negative in the English
language. Sometimes we use it superficially. But hopelessness is an
extremely negative condition. It is not only emotionally traumatic it
has a powerful psychosomatic effect too.

Rev. Tony Higton

1 Cor. 15:19-26

23.03.08

All Saints' Church

Jesus Always Comes to Us:
They had heard what the women, Peter and John had found. The tomb was
empty and Mary claimed to have seen Jesus alive. But they still felt in
limbo. They locked the doors “for fear of the Jews

Rev. Tony Higton

John 20:19-31

12.03.08

All Saints' Church

Palm Sunday:
The full significance of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey may be
lost on us if we do not know the background to his action. It was, in
fact, a public claim to being the long-awaited Messiah.

Rev. Tony Higton

Matt 21:1-11

24.02.08

All Saints' Church

Rejoicing Every Day:
The teenage suicides in Bridgend have vividly conveyed the hopelessness
which some young people feel. There is all too much hopelessness out
there in the world. How many people out there are hopeless as we sit
here in church? Maybe some are contemplating suicide and our hearts
should go out to them.

Rev. Tony Higton

Rom 5:1-11

17.02.08

All Saints' Church

How to be a Part of God's Chosen People:
Abraham lived many centuries before Jesus. He didn’t have the Bible (it
wasn’t written then). He didn’t have the church (it hadn’t started). He
didn’t know about Jesus. But he had faith and...

Rev. Tony Higton

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

09.02.08

All Saints' Church

What's Wrong with Human Beings?:
Did Jesus really have an encounter in the wilderness with a personal
Devil? That is how the story of Lent – Jesus’ 40 days and 40 nights in
the desert – puts it. I can’t go into that in great depth here.
But, like the Church of England, I do believe in a personal Devil.

Rev. Tony Higton

Gen 2:15-37

03.02.08

All Saints' Church

A Sermon for Older People:
I think I’m beginning to feel depressed. Even more so when I read
Cicero: ”As I give thought to the matter, I find four causes for the
apparent misery of old age: first, it withdraws us from active
accomplishments; second, it renders the body less powerful; third, it
deprives us of almost all forms of enjoyment; fourth, it stands not far
from death.”

Rev. Tony Higton

Luke 2: 22-40

20.01.08

All Saints' Church

The Kingdom of Justice:
Who is the Servant of the Lord? Isaiah writes about him several
times. Initially, it could be that it was a corporate servant,
i.e. the people of Israel were God’s Servant.

Rev. Tony Higton

Isaiah 42: 1-9

06.01.08

All Saints' Church

God is Working His Purpose Out:
God brought about the incarnation of his son through the virgin birth
in Bethlehem, attended by a heavenly choir, and the subsequent visit of
the Magi from the East. Then King Herod hears of it and acts to destroy
the infant Jesus, slaughtering other small boys in the process. On the
face of it, is God really in control?

Rev. Tony Higton

-

23.12.07

St Mary's Church

Is Jesus God?
Sometimes I feel as if my brain is buzzing with questions, from as
mundane as ‘Did I switch the oven on before I came out’ or ‘Have I done
everything I’m supposed to do to be ready for Christmas?’

Patricia Higton

Matt1.20

16.12.07

All Saints Church

Mary's Example:
There is a major problem with the Christmas story in Britain: it tends
to be ignored – even by Christians. Everyone knows that it is ignored
amidst the commercial festivities. But it should also be noted that,
because the story is so familiar, it can wash over Christians like warm
shower water.

Rev. Tony Higton

Matt 1.18-25

09.12.07

All Saints' Church

The Generosity of God Challenges Us to Generosity:
Are you finding life difficult? Are you hanging on by your finger
tips- not sure if you can carry on? Perhaps just when you thought it
couldn’t get any worse: it did. I’ve been there, and
sympathize.

Rev. Tony Higton

Romans 15: 4-13

18.11.07

All Saints' Church

Signposts of the End:
The implication of Jesus’ teaching is that when we hear of such things
we should have two thoughts in mind. One is of compassion towards those
adversely affected as to how we can help them. But the second
thought is to remember that Jesus said these are repeated reminders of
the fragility of life, of the End and of his coming.

Rev. Tony Higton

Luke 21:5-12, 24-28

04.11.07

St Mary's Church

A Different Kind of Kingdom:
We remember all the saints today – that doesn’t just mean those
depicted in stained glass windows, because Paul wrote to the saints in
Rome, the saints in Ephesus, the saints in Philippi – and he could just
as well have written to the saints in the Woottons.

Patricia Higton

Matt. 5:1-12

28.10.07

All Saints Church

Doers of the Word:
Jesus said (verse 21) "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will
enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father
who is in heaven.” We go to church and sing all the hymns. We say
the set prayers. We recite the creed But this can be merely words,
words, words?

Rev. Tony Higton

Matt 7:15-29

07.10.07

All Saints Church

A Harvest Challenge:
I know of a clergyman who was preaching on this passage and couldn’t
understand why the congregation became highly amused. He was speaking
of Jesus teaching about the seed (of the word of God) falling on rocky
(shallow) ground, where it soon stopped growing and was killed off by
the hot sun.

Rev. Tony Higton

Luke 8: 1-15

30.09.07

All Saints Church

Unity in Diversity:
We are celebrating this special occasion today with a birthday cake and
a display of work done by our children.

Rev. Tony Higton & Patricia Higton

1Cor 12: 7-31

02.09.07

All Saints Church

"Life is not fair":
I don’t know how many times I’ve stood in front of grieving family and
friends and acknowledged: “We’re all asking the question ‘why?’”

Rev. Tony Higton

-

26.08.07

All Saints Church

A God who weeps:
in this last sermon in the series we look at another reason – He is a
God who weeps. Jesus shows us what God was like. That is the
principle of the incarnation. And we see that: Firstly, Jesus was
moved with compassion over the hungry (and needy)

Rev. Tony Higton

Luke 19:41-44

19.08.07

All Saints Church

A God Who Seeks:
Firstly, he seeks those who have not yet come to faith in Christ or who
have not yet become involved in the church. Jesus uses three
illustrations of this. He tells the story of the lost sheep.

Rev. Tony Higton

Luke 15

12.08.07

All Saints Church

A God Who Rescues:
Why do we do evangelism? Why do we carry out mission? It is because we
have a God who loves and wants all human beings to love him. It is also
because we have a God who communicates. He speaks to us through Jesus,
through the Bible, through creation, through conscience and in other
ways. This God also identifies. He came to be one of us, sharing the
pain, suffering, stress and temptations of the world in order to save
us through dying on the cross. However, there is another reason –
a very solemn one. A faithful preacher brings the bad news as well as
the good.

Rev. Tony Higton

John 3:17-8
John 3:36
1 John 5: 10-13

15.07.07

All Saints Church

How do you inherit eternal life?
Over the years I have spoken at meetings in many places and many
countries. On occasions I have had someone come up to me to check out
if I am orthodox. They tend to be more Evangelical believers. “Do
you believe in the authority of the Bible?”

Rev. Tony Higton

Luke 10:25-37

08.07.07

All Saints Church

A God Who Identifies:
God loved us so much that he became one of us, experiencing all the
pressures, suffering, disappointments, humiliation, injustice,
unrequited affection and temptations that we do.

Rev. Tony Higton

Phil. 2:6-8
Col. 1:12-13
Heb. 4:15

01.07.07

All Saints Church

The Only Organisation Which Exists Primarily for Non-Members:
Why is the church the only organisation which exists primarily for
non-members! Is it to get a higher income for the church? No, it’s
because we believe in a Missionary God. He reaches out to the
whole of humanity – every human being, to tell them about, and enable
them to experience, salvation. Christianity is essentially a Missionary
Religion. Mission, including Evangelism, is essential to
Christianity. Without Mission and Evangelism Christianity is
emasculated: a pale reflection of the real thing.